Saturday, September 20, 2014

This week has gone great! We have put in a lot of
effort to find new people to teach and have had success in that. We
sadly didn't have a ton of lessons, but we really feel like we are
preparing the area right by taking a couple steps back to take steps
forward with a good foundation. I really feel like the training call was
inspired. I have been pushing
myself a lot harder to work on the area and myself, while trying to help
Elder Heath learn how to do things right. We have taken a little time
to re-do our whiteboard so it will be useful in the process of weekly
planning, everyday work and planning, and especially finding out the
needs of the different people we teach. I have found that as we were doing it, we were
receiving inspiration on how we could do it even better. We have also
made sure that we take the time to contact and reach out to everyone we
meet throughout the day. As we have been doing these different things,
we have seen a lot of progress in ourselves and the few people that we
teach.

We have been getting along great as
a companionship, Elder Heath really reminds me of Adam Ure, and we are
working well and hard together. I am proud of Elder Heath because I can
rely on him to do his part of the work. I know I am training him, but he
is learning so fast and well that I have no doubt that he'll be just
like a normal companion with experience by the end of training. He has
really surprised me in his memorization abilities and he already has
almost all of the Joseph Smith History memorized. I have really high
hopes for him, and I look forward to helping guide him a little in week 2
of training.

I personally have been doing a
lot better, I feel more focused and relaxed at the same time. Before
getting the call for training, I was kind of falling just into the
routine of things. I felt like I was wasting so much time because I was
too comfortable with where I was at. Now I am constantly thinking of
things I can do better, more efficient ways of doing things, ways to
better the area. I really am thankful for this training call. I feel
like I have never been a better missionary than I am now-- sure I am not
teaching a ton of lessons, but I feel like soon enough, we will have all
of these things sorted out and have baptisms come. I really don't feel
like I am training, I feel like I am guiding Elder Heath to be the most
efficient, hard working missionary he can be. I am so happy and grateful
for this opportunity I have to serve and to be here.

I
can hardly believe that Linzie is already 1 and that Brianna is already
in 1st grade and Jacen is already in preschool.... Time just flies too
fast, I feel like I just got here, but I'm already on the downhill slide
back into reality. The only things I could say I would be excited for
are: 1) meeting all the new nieces and nephews; 2) having my good ol'
big bed; and 3) being able to participate in choirs and bands again.

This week in the area has been great! It was a
little unexpected to lose Elder Petersen from our companionship. On
Thursday he was called to different area because another elder was having medical problems involving the
nerves all over his body. The mission leadership/mission doctor ended up sending him home to make
sure that he gets all the necessary care, so I felt the responsibility
fall to my shoulders because I know the area and the people.

We worked really hard trying to find new people to
teach, trying former investigators and potentials, and we found a really
good new investigator from a part-member family. He is really prepared
and I am really excited to move forward with teaching him. We also had a
really good experience going on splits with the youth from the area. We found one of the friends of these two young men, who just happens
to be a recent convert. This young man has been talking about the
church with his friend, but has been really hesitant to invite him to
church, though he has invited him to activities. This split that we did was on
Saturday, and we asked the young man to invite his friend to church for
Sunday. Sadly the friend was working with his dad, which is an
uncommon occurrence, so we have high hopes for this guy. We have a
lesson set up with the recent convert with his friend for this Saturday,
and we hope to see him at church Sunday. The area is slowly, but
surely, starting to perk up. We have the expectation to be able to
baptize these two people in this transfer or the next because they
already have the support of members and friends.

I am glad to be in this area and to be able to see
the fruits of my efforts lift it up. I am also glad to have the
opportunity to train Elder Heath. He seems like a great missionary and I
have high hopes/expectations for him and myself.

I guess I didn't have the opportunity to tell you
yesterday(Labor Day), but we got a call last Saturday saying that Elder Spencer was
leaving the area, then on Sunday we got a call saying that I was going
to be a trainer, and Elder Spencer was going to be English for a period
of time. So my greenie's (trainee) name is Elder Heath and he is from
Orem, Utah. I really don't know much else about him because I met
him about 5 hours ago and we've been moving in and stuff...

We did end up moving to our new apartment that will be safer for us to travel to and from (ie the configuration of the road is just safer).
And the English sisters are actually in the next building over, so they
were really nice and baked us cookies. Yesterday, because we couldn't
email and we weren't going to shop due to transfers, I decided to make
us all french toast for breakfast as a thank you for the cookies and
stuff.

1) Elder Spencer didn't exactly believe us when we
told him that his bike had been stolen, but then he didn't really freak out because we knew we could
fix the problem the next day when we went to Kingwood for the meeting
with Elder Cook.

2) The 4 loves were specifically for a missionary,
but I guess they can apply to you guys. They were 1) Love your
companion (spouse or family member); 2) Love the people (in the ward and your area/community); 3) Love your
Mission President (or your church leaders in your case); 4) Love the
Lord

3) Yeah, we have worked things out and mainly just
laughed about each other's mistakes. Now I'm with my new companion, and I
really am just determined to teach him right. I have enough experience
as a missionary that I usually know what to do and how we can do better.
I am excited for this experience, especially because I have been
feeling like it was just my time for it--I have really needed something
to get me out of just going through the motions...

4) I actually have been reading it. It is something that somebody
spoke about recently and I have been reading it to see what it says
specifically about my mission and after so I can make goals to become
what God sees me as.

About Me

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and have made my decision to serve my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for 2 years before heading to college. I've been called to serve a Spanish speaking mission in Houston Texas, and am excited to be able to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Though I've always been a member of this church, it was my choice to serve a mission. I'm excited to bring the plan of happiness to others, and help them to heighten their joys here on earth, and in the eternities to come.